It was like a baton was being passed too, when Gary Oldman paid tribute to the skills of fellow best actor nominee Timothee Chalamet – telling the young actor he’d be back and that his time for an Oscar would come.

Meanwhile, The Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro offered a challenge to aspiring film-makers.

“I want to tell you – everyone who is dreaming of… using genre or fantasy to tell stories about the things that are real in the world today, you can do it,” he said as he picked up the award for best picture.

“This is a door – kick it open and come in.”

3. ‘Representation matters’

That line came from the inspiring speech given by Lee Unkrich, producer of Disney/Pixar’s charming Day of the Dead animation Coco.

He said his biggest thanks went to Mexico, and that the film could not have existed without its “endlessly beautiful culture and traditions”.

Image copyrightEPA

Image caption
Director Lee Unkrich (right) with the Coco crew

“With Coco, we tried to take a step forward toward a world where all children can grow up seeing characters in movies that look and talk and live like they do,” he told the audience.

“Marginalised people deserve to feel like they belong. Representation matters.”

It was an Oscars where representation seemed to matter, more than perhaps ever before.

It was on stage in the form of Daniela Vega, the first transgender actress to present. (The film she stars in, A Fantastic Woman, also won best foreign film.) And it was present when del Toro won best director and best picture.

Image copyrightReuters

Image caption
Daniela Vega made history when she came on stage to introduce a song performance

Frances McDormand made a point of forcing the Oscars to stare representation in the face by asking female nominees to stand up. And Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton spoke of the importance of their short film, The Silent Child, in representing deafness.

There’s still a long way to go, with only one woman having won a best director Oscar – an award that’s yet to go to a black director. But it feels like a start.

4. Snacks are key…

It might seem like the stuff of dreams – or of nightmares, depending on how you feel about hot dogs. But giant plastic hot dog cannons that you fire actual hot dogs out of are real, they exist, and they formed a key part of a skit during the Oscars show.

Jimmy Kimmel got celebrities including Gal Gadot, Margot Robbie and Emily Blunt to take a quick trip across the road to a nearby cinema, where an unsuspecting audience were watching a preview of A Wrinkle in Time.

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